《The Eye of Xunto Online: A LitRPG Series》


 Chapter 1

    I opened my eyes.


    It was a beautiful spring morning. I was lying on a carpet of green grass. Around me there were great trees. At the tops of the trees there were birds chirping and there were colourful beetles resting on the barks of the trees. I was aware of a dull ache in my head. I could recall dreaming about being in a car with my wife. But I wasn¡¯t quite sure how the dream had ended. Dreams never had any definite endings, did they?


    Then I thought about it. What on earth was I exactly doing in a forest? Maybe I was in a dream presently and when I had been in the car with my wife that had been the true reality. But everything around me looked so vivid. I could see the veins of individual leaves with a clarity that I doubted was ever possible in a dream.


    I pushed myself up to a sitting position, and as I did that I became sure that I was in no dream. I could feel the muscles of my body ache and I clutched my head for sitting up seemed to make it pain worse. I rubbed my face with my hand and frowned at my surroundings.


    I tried to remember how I had gotten to this forest place. Had I come to hike here? Try as much I did, I could remember nothing. All that came to my head was the dream of my wife talking to me with the two of us inside a car.


    And then I heard a snorting sound.


    I turned my head towards the peculiar sound. My heart skipped a beat. In the bushes a few metres away there was what looked like a boar, except this animal was much larger and it had three horns on its head. It seemed to be nibbling on the leaves of the bushes. I was well aware that the creature could easily harm me with its pointy horns. I considered my situation. I had to creep away from the place without attracting the attention of the beast. Thankfully the animal was not looking towards me. But its tube-like ears were moving about trying to catch the smallest of sounds and I had to be really quiet.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I pushed myself up to my feet, ignoring the pains that my body was in. I took a step away from the beast. As unlucky as I was, a twig snapped under my foot. I gulped as the animal¡¯s ears fixed at me. And then the beast turned its massive head towards me to inspect the cause of the noise. I wanted to run, but I knew that doing so could be even more dangerous than standing still. I really was in a dilemma.


    The animal¡¯s eyes found me. For a moment the animal just observed me, as though considering whether I was a threat or not. And then it began to throw back dirt with its hooves, as though getting ready to charge at me. Just then the strangest thing happened. Words inside a box popped up in my vision!


    *New Quest available:


    Kill the beast with your bare hands


    Rewards: You level up by five levels


    Note: The chance that you will succeed is very less. It is advised that you run for your life instead.


    Would you like to accept the quest?


    Yes/No?


    What the hell? I thought as I shook my head and thankfully doing so rid my vision of the pop up. The beast charged at me. I put my hands over my face accepting the worst. But the beast never hit me, instead a great yelp of pain came from it. I removed my hands from over my face and I saw a great arrow sticking to the side of the beast.


    Despite the pain on the beast¡¯s face, it seemed to only become more infuriated. The beast also seemed to think that I was the one who had shot the arrow at it and it charged at me with even more anger and speed. Yet another arrow came flying mere moments before the beast could pierce my body with its horns. Then a third and a fourth arrow followed suit. The beast fell to the ground with a great thud. It kept yelping for a while but soon its eyes turned lifeless, a pool of blood forming beneath its body.


    As I turned to look at the direction from which the arrows that had saved my life had come, my breath got stuck in my throat. Six women, each a minimum of ten feet tall approached. They were all armed with bows, arrows and swords. But the height of the women was only partially the reason why I was so surprised on seeing them.


    What really blew the air out of me was that none of the women had hair; instead silky green grass grew on their heads...

 Chapter 2

    With a few strides of their long legs the women reached me.


    One of them, who had slightly more weight than the rest and also seemed to be somewhat older, pointed her sword at me.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked.


    I was too awestruck by the appearance of the women that I could not answer at all. I was also wary of the fact that she could cut me into half with a single slash of her massive sword.


    ¡°He looks like a Dwarvian,¡± one of the other women said.


    ¡°But I don¡¯t think Dwarvians have black grass on their heads,¡± another said, who had a tattoo on her neck.


    ¡°W-where am I?¡± I stuttered.


    Suddenly the first woman who had spoken to me let out a laugh. She seemed rather amused seeing me speak.


    ¡°He looks scared to death,¡± she said to her companions. She came and squatted in front of me, so that her head was at the same level as mine. She observed me.


    ¡°I do not think I have ever seeing anything quite like you,¡± she said. ¡°You seem to me like a fusion of all the different races that inhibit the world.¡±


    All the time she was speaking, I was gawking at her giant face. My heart hammered in my chest.


    ¡°Where am I?¡± I asked again.


    The woman laughed at my squeaky voice. But I continued to look at her fearfully and maybe she realised that I really didn¡¯t know where I was.


    ¡°You are not far from a village of us giants,¡± she said. ¡°Where did you come from?¡±


    ¡°Jorhat,¡± I answered. Jorhat was the name of my hometown. I at least hoped that such a place existed and I wasn¡¯t imagining that I had a hometown in the first place. ¡°Is there any way I can get back to Jorhat?¡±


    ¡°Well, I have never heard the name of that place,¡± the woman said. She turned to her companions. ¡°Anybody knows where Jorhat is?¡±


    They all shook their giant heads.


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember the way you came to here from Joorhat?¡± the woman asked.


    ¡°No,¡± I said, ¡°you¡­ you won¡¯t believe me, but I just woke up here with no memory of how I got here.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    The woman made a small frown as though unsure if she should believe me. But I kept looking at her with imploring eyes, with the hope that I might be able to get her and her companions to help me get back home.


    ¡°Mother Witch might know where this place Joorhat is,¡± one of the other giant ladies said from behind. The woman squatting near me nodded.


    ¡°Yes, it would be best if we took you to her,¡± she agreed. ¡°You want to go to our village?¡± The woman asked me. There was not much to think.


    ¡°Yes,¡± I said.


    So it happened that we began our trek through the forest to the village of the giants. The giant ladies moved as slow as they could keeping me in mind, but I still had to move extra quick to keep pace with them. They carried the boar-like animal tying its legs to a strong branch. Along the way they joked that the men of their village would be left dumbfound seeing the animal, since the men had only managed to catch a few rabbits during yesterday¡¯s hunt. In about half an hour we reached the village.


    The village of the giants was a village of large houses built of stone slabs. The roofs were made of thatch and there was a very rough appearance to the houses, most of which seemed to have only one room. Entering the village, I was at once filled with fear, for even the children running about the streets of the village were of my height and they all had heads of grass instead of hair. I wondered in which part of the world I was exactly. Was I even in the world in the first place? The villagers looked at me with fascination and I felt like I was some exotic creature brought from a distant land.


    And then we reached the home of the Mother Witch. It was a smaller house than most of the other homes in the village, but it definitely had more decorations. The walls of the Mother Witch¡¯s house had beautiful tribal paintings and the house was surrounded by a bunch of intriguing trees that had fat trunks but no branches and few very small leaves.


    I was ushered into the presence of the Mother Witch who was sitting on a bed. She was large like the other giants, but she was very old and she had developed a stoop which made her appear smaller. Her face was a jumble of wrinkles and the grass on her head had little colour left. She wore heavy chains of gold around her neck.


    ¡°What happened?¡± she asked the women who had brought me in a voice as ancient as her appearance.


    ¡°We found him in the forest while we were out to hunt,¡± they replied. ¡°He says he has no idea how he came there and he wants to go back to his home¡­ some place called Joorhat.¡±


    The Mother Witch nodded and turned to me.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± she said, ¡°I do not recall ever seeing anyone like you in my entire life that has spanned centuries. But perhaps I can help you. Come near me.¡±


    Tentatively I went near the Mother Witch. She lifted up her old hand, which looked rather heavy what with all the fat rings she wore, and placed it on my head. The Mother Witch then closed her eyes and she began to mumble words under her breath. Her words became more and more rapid as she progressed in her strange incantation. I couldn¡¯t help but notice a paleness overcoming her parched face. And by the time the Mother Witch finished mumbling her words, the expression that hung on her face was one of extreme horror.


    The Mother Witch opened her eyes and they were all red and on the verge of tears. She lifted a shaking hand from my head that had been so calm when she had first placed it on me.


    ¡°Wh¡­ what is the problem, Mother?¡± one of the women asked from behind.


    ¡°Bind him in ropes and do not let him escape!¡± the Mother Witch cried. Before I could make sense of what was happening, the very women who had brought me from the forest pinned me to the floor and bound my hands and feet with fat ropes that I could never hope freeing myself from.